After three years of having detected the plague swine in the Dominican Republic, the Incident Command for the Swine Fever African (PPA), a commission created by the United States to help authorities local to mitigate the spread of the diseaseannounced the culmination of his functions in the country.
The output of this command -created by the Department of Agriculture of the United States (USDA) and the Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (Aphis), means that the disease stays low controlwith a minimal presence in some areas of the country, stressed the head of this commandSilvia Kreindel.
“Now the disease It is no longer an emergency, it has been in the country for three years,” Kreindel said, indicating that the disease has become endemic and this requires facing it with measures of biosecurity at the farm level and improve ability response for the detection of the disease.
- A disease is endemic when the presence of the infectious agents that cause it remain present in a certain geographic area throughout the year, the UDSA states on its website.
During the time the commission was in the country, the United States contributed around $140 million to help finance the actions of control and eradication of the plague swine African, indicated the representative of the United States Embassy, Jeromi Mick.
“While we congratulate the authorities dominican for their tireless efforts to control and contain the diseasewe must recognize that the PPA continues to represent a significant risk, both for local producers and for the region as a whole,” remarked the diplomat, who indicated that this has represented a restructuring and modernization of the industry. swine in the country.
Production has recovered
The minister of AgricultureLimber Cruz, emphasized that the production of pig is being recovered at levels prior to the arrival of the plague swine to the country, when there were between 1,600,000 and 1,700,000 units of pigand that this will ensure the catering of meat for the Christmas festivities.
“Much has been done; we are at a peak, almost achieving 100% of the eradication“, he told the press. Kreindel specified, however, that determining this is difficult, because only affected animals can be detected. those who have been tested.
Within the framework of the activity, the head of the command explained that the ability of detection of the country has improved, from 100 to 200 tests daily to more than 1,000through the Central Veterinary Laboratory (Lavecen).
This, added to days of veterinary trainingprotocols biosecurity and inputs for producers, all tools “that did not exist” two and a half years ago.
Creation of a biosafety fund
The closing ceremony culminated with the signing of a agreement to create a background of biosecurity that guarantees continuing to invest in the implementation of technologies that increase the security on pig farms.
The general administrator of the Agricultural Bank, Fernando Durán, explained that this agreement will have the contribution of 300 million pesos from the USDA-Aphis, and a counterpart of 300 million pesos that the Government will provide from the funds of loans at zero rate.
This will allow the background a capital of 600 million pesos to settle.
The agreement was signed by Cruz, Kreindel and Durán, together with the representative of the Inter-American Institute for Cooperation for Agriculture (IICA), Gina Rosario Díaz.
